Happy Clean Living is also a fun filled blog with life stories, recipes, food storage, emergency preparedness, inspirational messages, cleaning and more! The time to be happy is now, the place to be happy is here. Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life. Come what may and LOVE it!

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Sunday, January 18, 2015

Unfortunately Brady was in a car accident in the U of U parking lot last fall. He tried to call me a million times, but I had forgotten to take my phone to work that day. I felt so bad when I arrived home and saw what had happened to him. It's always a scary thing to get in a wreck. But, as long as nobody is injured, it's OK. That is why we have car insurance. This is Brady's explanation of the wreck for our insurance company.His car is fixed now and everything is good. I know it was traumatic for him to go through. There was a lot of anger because the girl wasn't paying attention and hit him. But, I guess it's something we all experience unless you are one of the lucky ones who never experience a wreck - however, I think that is a small number of people. So Brady drew up a diagram of the wreck to explain what happened.

You can look at the template diagram for a scene of the parking lot. The blue represents parked cars. The orange are the vehicles in question. The parking lot is on the left, it takes place near an outlet to the road on the right. The red marks are stop signs, and I drew arrows to declare the direction they were facing.

My car was parked at the stop sign at the bottom, I was going straight, not turning to get out of the road. The other car was coming out of the parking lot, and approaching the outlet on the same path. She does not have a stop sign (mostly because you can't put a stop sign out in the middle of the parking lot road). See Scene 1.

I looked both ways, didn't see anyone coming (I had a very limited view, the parking lot was completely full, that is why I was going straight because I was vulturing around for a space) then I proceeded to go. Only when I pulled out did I see the car coming. I was committed, and she did have plenty of breaking time. She was going way too fast, wasn't going to yield while approaching an intersection in a parking lot, and T'd my car. See Scene 2.

She honestly had a whole three seconds before hitting my car, I wasn't going that fast because I was started in a parked position. She may have told the officer that I did not stop at the stop sign, because we only saw each other when I pulled out in the intersection, possibly looking like one continuous motion. You can see how far back that line is that I needed to stop at if you look at the picture labeled "lot6". The picture labeled "lot2" is a good representation of my vision, as you can see I had that big blue/grey SUV with the square back to look past. The picture labeled "lot3" is probably a good representation of my view when I started to proceed into the intersection. The picture labeled "lot4" is going to be the other driver's view, about when I decided it was safe to proceed. "lot5" is a closer view, to see how close you have to get in that intersection to see the line of that stop sign I was parked at.

After our cars hit, my car went off in the left direction, hers went into the right direction. See Scene 3. Because my car was hit on the left side and turned to the right, physics would tell us that she hit the back half of my car, most of my weight was already in the intersection by the time she hit me. (Also, my back door is the most damaged, as that one I avoid opening). Now, me starting from a parked position (so I'm not going too fast), and getting the back half of my car hit in a parking lot where you're only supposed to be going 10 miles an hour suggests that she was speeding. I assume she was going around 20 miles an hour while exiting the parking lot. If she had been going 10 miles an hour, there is no excuse of why she couldn't break before hitting the back half of my car. (tangent) I did not hit her, she hit me in a parking lot. She was still in a parking lot, and she should have been using just as much caution as I was using, and had full power to prevent the accident by using standard caution. Just because there is was no stop sign as she approached the intersection, that does not excuse her for acting like God, and speeding to take the right of way. My car is big, red, and visible. If she could not stop from hitting the back half of my car, then she would not have stopped if a pedestrian had popped out from behind that big SUV car parked on the corner and it would have been her fault, because she would have hit a pedestrian in a parking lot. There is no reason to excuse her reckless driving because I am in a car at a stop sign (with limited view and cannot see into the isle fare enough to predict speeding cars from where the line is).

There is also no evidence to suggest that I did not stop at the stop sign. I even went and asked commuter services on campus if they have surveillance of the parking lots to prove my innocence in the matter. They unfortunately do not, so it is my word against theirs, but I hope I have provided applicable evidence to suggest that the other party was speeding in a parking lot, as she hit the back half of my car. The other alternative would be that I was speeding AND blew past the stop sign. I'm sorry, but I have been going to this school since August of 2013, have used that parking lot almost every school day since then, and know fully well that that stop sign is there, and ALWAYS yield, frankly because that intersection in general kind of scares me a little, even more so now.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Brady had a friend purchase Jason and Sharon a couple of bottle of wine for Christmas dinner. Brady is under age so we had to have someone else purchase it for us.

Unfortunately Brady didn't have a wine opener, so Sharon resorted to using a screw driver and hammer to hammer the cork down into the bottle. They thought that Brady would have scout pocket knife with a wine opener on it, but he didn't.

It was so funny watching her go at that wine bottle cork.

It was a complete mess. The cork fell apart in the wine. She finally used a paper towel over the glass to filter out the cork pieces out of the wine. It was actually pretty funny.

We put a Wine Opener on our shopping list for the next day - which we bought a Gordmans.

The day after Christmas we went shopping. I wanted to take Brady to our new favorite store Gordmans. Jason drove us every where. It was really nice to not be the strong one, the "Parent" and take care of everyone. It was so very nice to have my eldest son taking care of everyone. I loved to sit back and let him worry about where to go and how to get there. It's wonderful having grown children and I can just enjoy the people they have become. I love them so very much.

Salt Lake has grown so big since I lived there. We shopped at Gormans and found some great deals on some new clothing for Brady. We also went to JC Penneys to get some more Levis for Brady.

While we were out and in the area where we used to live, we decided to go look at our old house, a single wide trailer that I lived in for 10 years while living in Salt Lake City. It was amazing that it was still there and it looked great. We drove around the Trailer Park looking at everything and talking about all the memories we had while living there. That is basically where Jason grew up from age 4 to 14 before we moved to Boise.

I wish I would have taken a few pictures while we were there. We also drove by his old elementary schools and around some areas we used to go while living there. It was wonderful to remember our life back then. Brady doesn't really remember much because he was barely 4 years old when we moved.

Brady took us to Crossroads mall - across from Temple square.

Jason took a couple of pictures in front of the fountain.

The mall has a river flowing through. It's quite a beautiful mall. We ended up having lunch there. We had planned on going over to Temple square and looking at the decorations, but didn't because it was so cold.

Brady is modeling he new clothes that we purchased. He fell in love with this shirt and vest look. I think he got 5 different ones.

He is seriously such a good looking boy/man. I loved this preppy look.

Another angle looking into the bedroom.

I have missed Brady playing the piano all the time. So, I made him play for me a lot. I love listening to him play!

The other item on the list that we purchased while shopping was a book case to put his TV on. He had it on a short side table from when he moved in. I like that it is higher for viewing and that we could put his DVD and DVD player out in an organized manner, Previously the DVDs were in the basket (well multiple baskets). We used one of the baskets to put his Piano music in. Much more organized.

We did spend an evening in the Hot Tub at Brady's apartment complex. It was lots of fun and relaxing!

This is Jason's new obsession, rings. He's one tough guy. I'd hate to get punched with those rings!

A few pictures of my kiddos.

I made Jason take off his Suicidal hate (apparently it's a music band - I really don't like that hat).

This is my absolute favorite picture of them. I am so SAD that it ended up being blurry and not crisp!! But what cute kids I have!!!!

While I was there I gave Brady's apartment the Sondra sparkling clean too! That's what this mom does *grin.

We went grocery shopping while we were there too. I wanted to make a couple of batches of cookies for Brady and his flour was rancid. These are things he has to learn as he lives on his own. You have to use and rotate food - it doesn't last over a year.

I made him some gingersnap cookies and homemade oreos - we froze most of the cookies in individual bags. That is what I do so that the cookies don't go bad fast and they last for weeks, pulling out Freezer pint size bags with 8 gingersnap cookies and quart size bags for 4 homemade oreos in them. That way you can pull out a new bag every other day/week when the bag on your counter is empty. It's a great way to have homemade items last when you are living alone.

It was a fun trip and we had such a blast together. I love my little family!

Friday, January 2, 2015

Christmas 2014 Part 2 starts when we arrive in Salt Lake City Utah to spend a few days with Brady.

Brady picked us up from the airport and drove us to his apartment. The first thing we did was watch Brady open his presents that I had previously mailed him.

Jason and Sharon getting ready to watch Brady open his Christmas presents. We opened our presents the night before on Christmas Eve so we didn't have to mail them to SLC and try to get them back to Boise.

On Brady's Christmas list he wanted some white Levi jeans. I ordered them off of Amazon, but when they arrived they were an ugly off white (they were from Bullhead Denim - and I ended up returning them). But, I packaged them up AND ordered another pair from Levi. He didn't like the fit of the Bullhead Denim company, but the Levi white straight legged pants were a hit.

He also wanted some new socks. He wanted anklet and no show socks.

The socks also had to have lots of different colors and patterns. I bought several different kinds and he loved them all.

As a surprise Jason and Sharon gave me another gift. I was so shocked!

It was a piece of paper and I was really confused at what it was. They purchased me 6 months of Kindle unlimited for kindle books. Since I read ALL THE TIME, this was a perfect gift for me and I'm loving every minute of all those free books!

Jason and Sharon gave Brady an iTunes gift card.

Jason and Sharon gave Brady a maroon scarf too. It was soooo soft.

As a surprise I gave Brady a electrical body grooming kit. He hates his hairy body. I would love to have it all lasered off, but at least this lets him trim it up and keep his body hair at a minimum.

As I indicated in Part 1, I gave everyone a blog book from our family vacation to Puerto Vallarta. I also gave Brady 2 blogs books, 1 from his Junior year and 1 from his Senior year of high school. I need to finish getting him the rest of the years, but they are quite expensive so I have to do them a little at a time.

Here are his 3 blog books. This is why I blog, it keeps all the memories journaled so we don't forget every minute of the fun we are having!

Christ also gave Jason, Sharon and I Fandango gift cards because we love to go to movies. That was really kind of her to do that for us. We loved it. Thanks Chris!!

We had a lovely Christmas spending time together in Brady's small 500 square foot apartment. Jason and Sharon slept on his bed, Brady took the couch, and I brought a twin blow up mattress for me to sleep on the floor in the living room. It was tight but it worked and we were together.

After we opened presents, Jason cooked us Biscuits and Gravy for breakfast.

Then we had Ham, funeral potatoes, green beans, biscuits, salad for our Christmas dinner. Since Brady has a new desk in his kitchen area, we put the folding table and 4 chairs in the living room for dinner. Then we played Phase 10 and watch movies the rest of the day. It was the best time because we were together for Christmas.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Our Christmas 2014 Part 1 starts at home in Meridian Idaho with only Jason, Sharon and me. We did an early Christmas on Christmas Eve. We opened presents on Christmas Eve because at 5 am on Christmas day we were on an airplane traveling to Salt Lake City Utah to spend our Christmas with Brady!!!

Because I spent the majority of Christmas money on our airline tickets, there wasn't as many presents. I wanted to have a few more meaningful gifts because we already have so much stuff, and don't really need much.

I decided to print off our Puerto Vallarta vacation blog book for everyone. I gave one to Jason and Sharon, Brady, Lawrence and Mitch and one for me. I selected to have to book with the option of "large" pictures - which is what I'll be doing in the future. I loved the bigger pictures. Everyone loved this memory book of our fabulous family vacation we enjoyed during the year.

I've also been planning on putting a photo book together of Jason and Sharon's wedding. I finally did a book and used "My Publisher" to make my book. I loved their software and company. It was the easiest way to make a photo book and it turned out beautifully! I did 2 books, one for me and one for Jason and Sharon! I love photo books, so much easier then scrap booking! Plus, they loved their book!

Because Jason and Sharon got a new TV stand, they gave me their old one. I've wanted one for a while. I've just had my TV on an end table that my mom gave me. It's nice to have a real life TV stand! Merry Christmas too me!

Jason is a Tattoo artist and has been trying to get his own business going. One of the things he needed was a Tattoo Autoclave. It is a machine that sterilizes his tattoo equipment. The most important thing from a tattoo artist is making sure everything is clean and germ free. Jason is slowly getting all the things he needs to open his own Tattoo Shop, so he requested this from me for Christmas. (looks like a pressure cooker to me - LOL!)

Jason and Sharon gave me this cute measuring spoons. A bouquet of daisy's sitting on my counter. This has become my favorite measuring spoons. I love it!

The pot also is a measuring cup. How cute is that!

I splurged on a couple of presents for myself. Before Amazon released their Amazon TV stick, it was on a pre-order for the great price of only $19. Since I don't have any type of cable/dish system for my TV, only have antenna, apple TV and DVD player to watch TV. On my apple TV I can access Netflix and Hulu.

However, the TV in my bedroom was limited to only an antenna and a DVD player. When I saw this Amazon TV stick for $19, I jumped on it. This way I can watch Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime TV now.

My other splurge for myself was a bigger 8.9" Kindle Fire. Normally it is priced at $349, but during a Christmas special it was only $224. I couldn't resist and purchased it. I love the bigger screen! I still love my 7" Kindle, but love this one even better. It's light weight and I just LOVE the bigger screen.